'Company Title' - a certain elegance
The entrance to ‘Twenty’ Macleay Street, Potts Point
Back prior to the first Strata Title legislation being introduced in Australia, residential building shared ownership was facilitated by Company Title - a Company owned the building and land, and Owners were allotted shares in that company.
There are still quite a few apartment buildings in Australia that operate under such a Company Title arrangement - and none of the ‘modern’ Strata legislation applies to them - they remain, if you like, ‘aloof’ from such pedestrian matters.
Of course there are pros and cons. Bankers generally are reluctant to extend a loan so easily to a Company Title residential property - it’s a tad more difficult for them to take control if the loan falls into a default situation, and possibly more difficult to then dispose of it.
But reading through the Board Reports of ‘Twenty’ Macleay Street, - a supremely elegant art-deco apartment building in Potts Point Sydney, you get the distinct impression that everything’s under control, and that the Board and Owners are comfortably cossetted away in a luxury art-deco time-machine.
And we are able to get an insight into just how the affairs of ‘Twenty’ are conducted because the Board has put up their Reports for years 2011 to 2016 for us to indulge ourselves. We can only speculate as to why there’s nothing after 2016, but it’s probably safe to assume not all Owners were thrilled about these Reports being included on the building website.
Interesting to read in the 2011 report how they consulted and canvassed Owners views about certain renovations. In the 2016 report we get an initial glimpse of how the Board intended to deal with a new emerging nightmare called AirBnB - but no doubt the residents were able to feel somewhat relaxed, because the Board indicated they’d control all short-term rentals with an iron fist! The Rules at ‘Twenty’ very firmly control ALL rentals - not just short-term, and any rental to any party that’s not a family member must have Board approval first!
Visit the ‘Twenty’ Macleay Street website here.
View the Board Reports 2011 to 2016 here.
To find out the current situation with AirBnB and short-term rentals in Queensland, go to this post.
